Government failures promise government fixes (01-13-2025--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] The AP reports Los Angeles wildfire death toll surges to 24. Another 12 people remain missing. After a weekend spent blocking the explosive growth of fires that destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people in the Los Angeles area, firefighters got a slight break with calmer weather. But the forecast is not good. Weather forecast, not good.

[00:00:53] They're looking at potentially more high winds coming in over the next 24 to 48 hours. And if that happens, homes that had already burned valleys that are just smoldering could flare up again. That sends more embers up into the air. And then, you know, the wind takes them and blows them around. And then they start new fires where they land.

[00:01:19] The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions throughout Wednesday with sustained winds of 50 miles an hour, gusts in the mountains reaching 70 miles an hour. And so the most dangerous day they're saying is probably going to be tomorrow.

[00:01:37] Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marone said 70 additional water trucks arrived to help firefighters fend off flames spread by renewed gusts. There was also anger being directed at the guy who ran against Karen Bass for mayor. Rick Caruso, I believe is his name. He owns the Palisades Mall and it survived.

[00:02:06] Why? Because he went out and hired private firefighters to come in and keep his property intact. And they succeeded. And so people are mad that he did this because he's looking out for his own property. Well, you weren't using them, right? Los Angeles, like this. It's not like Los Angeles went and contracted more firefighters.

[00:02:32] So would you begrudge anybody for going in hiring, you know, pump trucks and stuff to protect their own property? Like this is a it's a line of thinking that I don't understand. I do understand, actually, now that I say that I do. It's it's envy. That's all it is. It's envy. Usually rooted in envy of their money because people think that's the answer to all of life's problems.

[00:03:00] Now, don't get me wrong. Money is the answer to a lot of problems, particularly the financial ones. But it's not the answer to all things, right? The love of money is the root of evil. It's the love of money, by the way. It's not just money. It's the love of money. And when people cannot see others, just like we had that guy, Larry, who called in last week and he was talking about, oh, it's not a big deal because all those people are rich. And they're not all rich.

[00:03:29] They may be land rich at this point. They may have bought their home, though, in Palisades or one of these other neighborhoods. They bought the home 50, 60 years ago. And the house now is worth a lot more money. The property is worth more money or it was. But that doesn't mean they're automatically rich enough to walk away and start all over again in some other part. And also they've lost all of their belongings, all of their memories, everything.

[00:03:55] And when Larry was unable or unwilling to see the basic humanity of somebody just because of what he perceives their bank balance to be, like that's a good example of envy. And then, of course, he attacked me saying, oh, you've never lost anything, which, as I mentioned earlier, I have. People of all income levels lose things through no fault of their own.

[00:04:24] Fires, burglaries, for example. Car accidents, loved ones get murdered, that kind of stuff. Like people lose stuff all the time. They lose possessions all the time. And they are victims. And they are no less a victim because they are rich versus poor. It doesn't matter. The victimization is the same.

[00:04:52] Now, that being said, there is a lot more attention, I think, being paid to the Los Angeles wildfires than what happened in Western North Carolina. I think it's because there are a lot of famous people that live in this area. And here's the thing. I don't have to pick one or the other. And neither do you. Both of those things can be true, right? That there are some people that are envious and so they're like, oh, I don't really care what's happening over there because they're rich.

[00:05:22] Right? They judge or they give empathy based on what they think your bank balance is. And that's envy. And once you start thinking like that, by the way, and this is at the root of socialism. It's Marxism in a nutshell. It's just grievance and envy. That's all it is. And then, you know, you can put whatever words you want to over it to try to argue the merits of this system.

[00:05:50] But at the root of it, it always comes down to envy. You have something that I want or think I should have or I deserve more. And so, therefore, I'm going to construct this entire economic system to take it from you and give it to me. That's it. But also that the coverage and the attention is disproportionate to what we saw in Western North Carolina. Both of those things can be true.

[00:06:15] But it also indicates that the people who are envious, right, they don't really care. That's the thing. They're not really empathetic. Because the amount of coverage we have devoted on this show to and on WBT in general to Western North Carolina recovery and the disaster out there as it was occurring. That didn't go very far for caller Larry last week.

[00:06:46] And the people in Western North Carolina are not exactly Hollywood rich and famous, you know? But that didn't matter. The death toll now is at 24 out in Los Angeles. What appeared to be a small to be small fire tornadoes were spotted Friday night. The death toll could still be higher. They got cadaver dogs that are doing searches throughout these neighborhoods.

[00:07:13] They've created centers for people to call to report the missing. Officials are urging people to stay away from the neighborhoods. The looters are not listening. About 150,000 people in Los Angeles County remained under evacuation orders, with more than 700 taking refuge in nine shelters. Officials said most of the orders in the Palisades area were unlikely to be lifted before the red flag warnings expire on Wednesday evening.

[00:07:43] In all, four fires consumed more than 62 square miles. That is larger than San Francisco. Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes 1,400 fire engines now, 84 aircraft, more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico.

[00:08:09] The fires that began Tuesday, just north of downtown Los Angeles, so almost a week ago, had burned more than 12,000 structures. No cause for the largest fires have been determined. One of the smaller ones, I think it's called the Kenneth Fire, that apparently has been connected to a quote-unquote transient arson.

[00:08:33] Early estimates suggest this could be the nation's costliest wildfire ever, with damage estimates to be around $150 billion. They're also using prisoners. Did you know this? Along with crews from other states and Mexico, hundreds of inmates from California's prison system are helping fight the fires. About 950 prison firefighters were removing timber and brush ahead of the fires to slow the spread.

[00:09:03] The practice is controversial, as the inmates are paid very little for dangerous and difficult work. They get $10.24 a day, with more if they do a 24-hour shift, according to the California Department of Corrections. Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Sunday aimed at fast-tracking rebuilding by suspending some environmental regulations and ensuring that property tax assessments were not increased.

[00:09:33] So once again, he says, we want you to come back, rebuild, and rebuild with higher quality building standards, more modern standards. So I guess like what, build the houses out of those flame-retarded mattresses and pajamas or something? Maybe everything out of stone? More than 24,000 people had registered for federal assistance made available by a major disaster declaration by the president.

[00:10:01] And Governor Newsom ordered state officials to determine why exactly a 117 million-gallon reservoir was out of service and some hydrants had run dry. We are going to find out who is responsible for leading this state, one way or the other, the leader of the state said. Here's a great idea.

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[00:11:44] U.S. News & World Report ranks each state on a wide variety of categories. In the most recent assessment, California ranked dead last in opportunity, dead last in affordability, 47th in employment, 47th in energy infrastructure,

[00:12:05] 46th in air and water quality, 45th in growth, 42nd in public safety, 42nd in short-term fiscal stability, 37th in K-12 education. The Tax Foundation, I wonder if those are related. The Tax Foundation ranks California 48th in its most recent state tax competitiveness index.

[00:12:31] For five straight years, California has ranked highest in people moving out of the state. That according to U-Haul. Bank rate found California was the 47th best state for retirement. In other words, like among the worst. California ranks fifth worst in roads and third worst in drivers. Second highest in accident rate. Second worst in drunk driving.

[00:12:59] And then he asks, why do California Democrats love this guy? Gavin Newsom. These are the results of your policy preferences. Real Gavinism has never been tried, I guess, right? Will that be the excuse? Newsom would have been fine. All of this stuff would have worked.

[00:13:23] All of these priorities and policies of the California Democratic-controlled legislature. All of these things would have worked out. They just, it's just this war and that SLB Johnson, right? To quote the Forrest Gump villain. Seriously. These are the results of your decisions. Two months before the fires.

[00:13:49] Los Angeles Fire Chief, Kristen Crowley, warned city officials. This was back in November. That her department had about half as many firefighters as it needs. When deadly wildfires struck the city two months later, Mayor Karen Bass pulled Crowley's memo from its website. Well, the admin hurt the mayor's administration.

[00:14:16] So, I don't think the mayor was in there doing, you know, document burying. I think it was, you know, somebody in the administration. That memo has been taken down from their website. Crowley wrote to the city's fire commissioners, a five-person board appointed by Karen Bass. She wrote, the fire chief wrote this on November 18th and asked them to transmit the message to the mayor and the city council.

[00:14:44] The fire department's size had not increased in decades despite significant population growth. It's one of those things. Nobody wants to pay for the services and then they will demand those services. And this happens all over the place at every level. Once again, to analogize the HOA, people want dues to be nothing and they want all of the richest amenities.

[00:15:14] They don't want to be tagged for weeds growing in their yard, but they want their neighbor to be tagged for weeds growing in their yard. Let me go over and get Ray on. Hello, Ray. Welcome to the show. Hello, Pete. How are you? Hey, I'm well. What's up?

[00:15:32] As just an average citizen that once in a while poses as a snowman on the street reporter, I had something to say about California. These people are not stupid. I think they kind of let these things go because they know it'll cause hardship on the people and cause them to move out.

[00:15:58] And, you know, companies moving out of California was not an overnight surprise to them. Am I right? Back to you, Pete. Well, no, so the insurance companies have been they've been not renewing various policies and different insurance carriers are making different decisions all over the country. Some states they're pulling out. They're not writing any more auto insurance. Some states aren't writing any more homeowners.

[00:16:27] So it's just, you know, different policies, different companies and carriers. So. Right. Right. So I so I'm. I usually default to incompetence. I default. Yeah. I'd rather than evil intention because I try not to ascribe motive to people when I don't know what their motives are. So I try not to just assume that they're doing things for evil intentions because I would prefer people not do that from, you know, to me. So.

[00:16:55] But I mean, if there's evidence, then I'm open to be persuaded, obviously. But I think what is usually the case, because it happens all the time in government and happens very often in the private sector as well, is that that the the organizations become bigger and bigger and bigger and they end up with mission creep. You know, they start doing all of these other things that are not their first order priorities.

[00:17:22] And then they lose sight of doing those first order priorities. Well, they don't do them well. And then because of the you know, if your first order is to provide fire and police protection, that then is reflected in, you know, more violent crime, higher crime rates and such and uncontrollable wildfires. That's how that manifests itself.

[00:17:45] So I look at this as this is the natural outgrowth of government agencies and officials that are getting distracted by things that they should not be getting involved in in the first place. Right. It's just to me, it's just kind of mind blowing that somebody with their intelligence could be incompetent not to see the insurance companies pulling out coming. But well, yeah, they did.

[00:18:10] I mean, because the insurance companies told them they said, look, we need we got to raise our rates because we cannot we can't pay out all of the claims that might arise in some sort of catastrophic wildfire. And the state of California was like, no, you can't raise rates. And why would they say that? They would say that because they don't want their constituents yelling and screaming at them because their insurance rates went up. That's it. Like, that's what it and that's it.

[00:18:35] That is the same in every kind of example like this from the HOA to the city to the federal government. Nobody wants to pay the taxes, but then they demand all of the services that the taxes pay for, you know. And then when they lose sight of their first order priorities, then they want to blame somebody else because they went and redirected all of the tax money to something else like DEI. Ray, I appreciate the call, sir. Great report. All right.

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[00:19:59] Trust the experts at Create A Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. This from AppPatriotGirl. How is it legal to have a mortgage with no homeowner's insurance? Well, if you have the mortgage, then the bank requires you to have it, right? So to have the insurance. So don't have the mortgage. I don't know what to tell you. Like, that's the answer to that question.

[00:20:31] Right? Because the bank wants its investment protected. So that's why they require the insurance. But you can get minimal insurance. You don't have to go above and beyond, you know? And then once you pay off the house, you can get rid of all the insurance that you want. And then it's your, right? Once you own the house, then you don't have to pay any insurance for anything. So I did have a message here. If someone had a state farm flood policy, this is from Scott.

[00:21:02] If someone had a state farm flood policy that was recently not renewed, and then that person suffered losses from the Helene flooding, could that person now sue the state of North Carolina for the damages that they suffered? Could they at least sue for the listed policy amount that was canceled because the state of North Carolina was ultimately responsible for the cancellation of that commercial property? Just wondering aloud. Yeah, good luck suing any government. I understand the logic of it.

[00:21:30] I think it's probably most obvious with the L.A. wildfire thing because, I mean, I don't think you have those kinds of issues with the Western North Carolina disaster because it was a, you know, I'm not aware of any state mandates or anything that affected the dropping of the flood insurance in Western North Carolina prior to the disaster. In California, rather, that is the case, right?

[00:21:58] These insurance carriers were not renewing policies because they could not afford without a premium increase. And the state said, no, you can't raise rates. And everybody, look, I got a story right here, actually, from the North Carolina treasurer is saying we're going to have to raise premiums for the health insurance for state employees. Maybe like 20 bucks a month. And everyone's freaking out. It's the first increase in like nine years.

[00:22:26] So everybody's outraged that the premium cost is going up. Twenty dollars. Nobody wants to pay more money for the risks, for the services. And that's not a defense of a system that the government has completely corrupted in short circuits the market signals. I'm not defending all insurance companies or the model or the government role in all of this.

[00:22:55] I'm not defending that. I'm just pointing out that. Like people want like they want it's like health care. It's the health care debate all over again. It's like I want access to emergency, the best emergency medical care. I want access to the best health care, preventative health care. And I want to pay nothing for it. How do you think that works? You know, Dean, welcome to the show, Dean. How are you? Pretty good, Pete.

[00:23:25] How about you? Sound good. I'm all right. Yeah, doing OK. Hey, you know, about the insurance industry and all that. I understand, you know, that they're just sort of the bridge between paying the claims and the funds that they're holding. But I think they've been complicit with the government.

[00:23:51] You know, if you offer everybody everything, why wouldn't you want everything? Instead of being honest. And I think they just pushed the can down the road. And now it's all it's it's it's going to be an epidemic. It's not just little rates here and changes here. There's going to be huge adjustments to the insurance industry. You can just see it coming that North Carolina, they're not insuring. You know, companies are dropping North Carolina from their company roles.

[00:24:22] I just I think people are going to be in for a big shock when they start to see what they can insure and not insure. OK, you're going to have to unpack that because I did not follow the logic. OK, the logic is that now all of a sudden the insurance industry is trying to play catch up. They're obviously in collusion with the government from the standpoint of determining the rates. OK, let me stop.

[00:24:52] Hang on. I'm going to stop you right there. What do you mean by the companies are in collusion with the government concerning the rates? I mean, they all they both on both sides. They know what's going on. I'm not saying they're in collusion to steal from us, but they they both know the situation as as each other. And, you know, they're they're both very big industries. What does that mean? They both know each other. They both know what's going. What does that mean?

[00:25:22] That they what do they what do they both know? That means that. OK, the government knows what they want. Like you say, want to present. And the insurance industry is saying, well, this is what we need. So they sit down and they they you know, someone holds sway. They negotiate and decide. OK. Well, they don't know. It's not a negotiation. This the companies say we need this amount of money for our premium increases.

[00:25:51] And then the state regulatory agencies say, no, you're going to you can only raise it this amount of money. And then and then when the insurance companies get told that, then they say, OK, well, now we can't write policies for these types of coverages because we could not afford to pay out in the event of catastrophe. So they drop and that's why they stop insuring because they can't get the premiums to cover their risk. Exactly. Yes. Right. So that's not so that's not collusion.

[00:26:20] That's the government dictating to the private sector what they would like if State Farm had it up to them, they would have just raised everybody's premiums. Mm hmm. But they weren't allowed to. So they dropped the policies. Those were the choices State Farm had. So I don't see that as collusion. When I when I see and I go on, I negotiate a lot of policies. I see aspects being dropped where you can, you know, insure your house, but where you insured the roof.

[00:26:50] Now they prorate the roof to how old it is to to negotiate against the claim. They well, yeah, I understand why they prorate the roof. Right. Because people will go and pick up an insurance policy for a roof that's like 40 years old. And then they're going to want the roof replaced immediately after they pick up the policy, after they buy the policy. Yes. Right.

[00:27:12] So that and that's so I would submit that's part of the problem is people are now treating these insurance claims much like they treat their health insurance, which is not like you're using like you're using your insurance policy as like a savings account. And that's not what it is supposed to be about. This is what got the health industry and health insurance stuff into the mess it's in. People treat it like it's some sort of an HSA or something. And it's not, you know, you don't treat your car insurance like that.

[00:27:41] The car insurance is for a car accident where there's a lot of damage done. You don't use car insurance to pay for your oil changes. No, no. But say I lived in my house for 15 years and I paid insurance every year. Yeah. Never had a claim. For your roof. And now all of a sudden I have a claim and they're going to say, well, what is the claim for? What? What is the answer? No, no, no. But what's the claim for? What happened to your roof? Was there a hailstorm? Yeah.

[00:28:11] Well, then they would pay that. They would pay on the hailstorm. If there's no hailstorm, they're not going to pay to replace your roof. No, but they're going to prorate the roof and say, okay, the roof is damaged. And now what used to be $20,000 is $45,000. And because the roof is 50 years old, we're going to pay 20% of what that $50,000 is to replace the roof. No, that might be true. I've never had it. I've never had that.

[00:28:38] Like I've had two roofs replaced and I've never had them prorate a roof for me. But then again, I haven't had a claim on a roof in probably 15 years. So, but yeah, people, if they treat the roof replacement as like, just sort of like, oh, I need to get a roof replacement. So I'm going to file a claim. Like, no, that's not what that's for. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know, I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too.

[00:29:04] And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place. So you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too.

[00:29:31] I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself, check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.

[00:29:57] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Look, I apologize if I don't – I did not understand what Dean was driving at there. I was up against the brake. I went to traffic way too late anyway, but I was trying to figure out what it was. But when people say the word collusion, that means to me that there is some sort of a conspiracy to enrich both of the parties, right?

[00:30:24] They are colluding to their own mutual benefit. And if one of those parties to the collusion gets to dictate the terms that the other one then has to agree to or they have to stop selling one of their products, like that to me isn't collusion. One of them has a more powerful position and it is the government.

[00:30:51] The government and the rate-setting agency – look, North Carolina has this too with its own insurance commissioner. And it regulates the insurance markets and it tells insurance companies you can't increase your rates by too much of a percent. And what is that too much? We'll know it when we see it, you know? They do the same thing with the utilities. So, yeah, I don't know what he was driving at with that.

[00:31:19] I don't see the non-renewal of the policies as evidence per se, stand-alone as a proof that the fix was in, people wanted the fires, they're trying to take all the land. And these are the same conspiracy theories that I heard after Hurricane Helene as well, right? And people think when they throw out the word eminent domain that I'm supposed to be like, oh, okay, eminent domain.

[00:31:49] But I know what eminent domain is. It's the taking of people's property, private property, for a quote-unquote public good. And that's not what's occurring here. Now, why does California and whoever it is that let the fires burn, like, why do they want that property? Has there been, like, just because you think an idea doesn't mean it's true. It could be true, I guess. Like when you're spinning theories, sure, some or all of it could be true.

[00:32:17] But that requires proof, evidence. And right now, all the evidence really looks like high winds, bad politicians with misprioritized interests, and no incentive to actually focus on the boring stuff of municipal governance. That's what it looks like.

[00:32:45] And, you know, the desire to keep everyone's insurance premiums low because they don't want to hear from complaining constituents. Again, it's the same thing that happens at the HOAs. It really is. Like, HOAs are really a good analogy for so much that happens at the government level. You know? It really is. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.

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